Haven Av and Thereabouts
I live in a studio. It's ~200ft² and has a bathroom and kitchenette. These are ample and fantastic amenities for a bout of monastic cosplay. But the chief reason is that I'm way too old to countenance even the slightest chance of squabbling over shared resources with an anonymous person (or two... picture a grumpy monk).
Mail
Columbia Medical Center's decided to consolidate all mail processing to 60 Haven for all buildings. So your address anywhere in CUIMC Housing is
[NAME] [UNI]
60 Haven Av
New York, NY - 10032
To receive mail you go to 60 Haven's mail office (enter, swipe, and hang right) to get your stuff. They'll send you a message when they receive packages via email. Here are their hours.
| Day | Hours |
|---|---|
| Monday | 10:00 AM – 7:00 PM |
| Tuesday | 10:00 AM – 7:00 PM |
| Wednesday | 10:00 AM – 6:00 PM |
| Thursday | 10:00 AM – 6:00 PM |
| Friday | 10:00 AM – 7:00 PM |
To send mail,
- Here are all USPS Offices.
- For letters with postage, you'll find mailboxes at
- 168th and Ft. Washington.
- 169th and Haven (near 60 Haven)
- For packages, you'll find the USPS office at 165th and Audubon.
- There's a FedEx dropbox right inside 60 Haven.
- There's a UPS Store at 172nd and Broadway.
👉 If you have a packaged, labeled parcel, you can drop it at 60 Haven.
Wifi
The network you'll join is called guest-net. No auth required. Some websites won't work (e.g. Vergil)1. It kicks you off every hour or so and is rather annoying.
There's the Mercury network that will maintain a persistent connection but requires a profile to be installed. I didn't like this but caved in after two months. You will need to be on guest-net and go here and be signed in to 'register your device' and install the profile. Once done, you can just connect to Mercury. I did this on all my iDevices.
Note that Verizon's available too. The plans range from $50-$75 (100-300 Mbps) per month.
Trash
Garbage and recycling and a compost bin are on the 1st floor/basement. There's some art in the basement, perhaps by former students, and it's a rather liminal space.
Laundry
$1.75 per load per wash/dry. This is managed by a company named TediMatts. You will get a laundry card with your welcome packet. Go here (or click "Revalue SmartCard" on the main website) and add some money to it. You will get a code. Then make sure you head to the main level, look to the right of the "add cash" box to find a smaller box, insert your card, and type in the code you got (else it goes poof after 30 days).
Vagelos Education Center
This place is new, modern, an amazing place to study and right down the street. It's open from 7AM - 11PM. Bring your badge.
The Metro
- The entrance closest to 154 Haven is on 175th right across the Park.
- There's another near the hospital on 168th.
Assorted Notes
There are no active vents (i.e. things with fans in them).
You'll need to put in work orders to fix stuff in your room.
154 Haven houses a few CUIMC offices:
- Student Financial Aid and Planning (main floor)
- Registration and Enrollment Services (main floor)
- IT (1st floor)
Other Stuff
Move-In Day
You schedule this on the housing portal. This is what I received on move-in day. Note that they'll helpfully get you your University ID as well!
TODO: Write notes on moving vehicles as well.
